2021 IMSA Prototype Challenge At VIRginia International Raceway

the international motorsports association or emsa as it's commonly known makes its annual pilgrimage to alton virginia and virginia international raceway this weekend and as usual the competitors in the imsa prototype challenge are ready to take on this iconic circuit up next round five of six in 2021 on nbcsn welcome in everyone i'm brian till along with jeremy shaw we'll have all the action for you today but first let's take a look at the weather it's been a rainy start to the weekend but today at least for the moment we're under overcast skies and it looks like only a 15 chance of rain or so as the day moves on so that's the good news also it's just 65 degrees so it should be a pretty comfortable day for the teams the drivers and the cars points leader maurice grant he owns the lead in the lmp3 one class over the 54 car of dakota dickerson and josh target but with three hours of competition ahead who knows what the championship will look like at the end and speaking of championships in the lmp32 category the 61 of danny koch and george stakos will they'll clinch that crown once the green flag drops for today's race one of the most picturesque racing circuits you'll find in north america lies just outside danville virginia virginia international raceway and it is iconic and it is historic and is one of the most challenging racetracks you'll find as we just said just outside danville virginia right on the north carolina virginia state line sits vir and what a race track it is uphill downhill high speed low speed it has it all best passing zones turn one maybe up into turn 12 certainly at the end of the long back straightaway turn 14 and then that rush down through the roller coaster through turn 17 known as hawk pin and onto the front straightaway and you completed a lap here at vir welcome in everyone imps a prototype challenge competition round five of six well if you like close championship point races you will love emsa prototype challenge look at this championship after four races with just two to go maurice krantz leads the championship over dakota dickerson and josh sarge but only by 10 points and in fact if you look back to last year's point structure the 10 points this year is only one point last year so it gives you an idea of just how close it is in fact the first four driver pairings still have a mathematical shot at this championship for the remainder of the field they may not be in it for the championship but rest assured they want to finish the 2021 season with at least a race win so the competition through this next three hours is going to be intense well from championship points to the grid and how we'll start today's race championship points leader maurice krantz on the pole with a brand new teammate 18 year old hugo de wilde will be carrying those championship hopes of krantz with him throughout his time behind the wheel today dan goldberg rasmus linda another great qualifying they're outside the front row the grant brothers another top three qualifying position they've had four of them so far this season they'll see if they can turn that into a podium finish alan berniels and trent hinman outside the front row know about podiums they won in the second round at sebring jason rabe courtney crone inside row three but who's missing on those first three rows even the first four five six rows well it's the 54 of dakota dickerson and josh sarge second in the championship they will start all the way back on the outside of row seven after breaking a half shaft in qualifying they did not get a lap but they will have three hours to try to hunt down and get back on that rear wing of maurice krantz in the 21. this is a three-hour event the preceding four races in the championship and the final round at michelin raceway road atlanta will all be and have been one hour and 45 minutes and so a three-hour race completely changes the complexion of the strategy that you want to use and we should note that three-hour clock starts at the beginning of the second pace lap five pole positions in five races grant in the white and blue number 21 drivers right will lead the field to green and alongside that six the blue and red dan goldberg goldberg has been impressive the last season in the prototype challenge category and right behind goldberg look at that bright yellow seven alan brennielson itching to go the yellow 40 right beside green flag waves krantz leads the field down to one we talk about the racetrack being driving jeremy if you get off the racetrack today you are going for a ride yeah it's there's been quite a bit of rain over the weekend so the grass is pretty slick there's some large roll-off areas but i tell you what when the grass is slick you get across those run-off areas pretty darn quickly but a nice clean start there there is antoine camo looking to the inside to try and make up a position in turn three unable to make that move stick this time around but it's moritz trans who leads from the pole position and you talk about the pole position he is on pull by 1.7 seconds an unheard of amount and i think the racetrack just getting better as he was out there and he was out there at the right time when it finally got into its beak and krantz was just devastating to the competition in qualifying now leads up through the s's flat out in a prototype challenge car through the climbing s's all the way to turn 11 on the brakes hard downshift down two gears three gears through oak tree onto the back straightaway and these cars will reach top speeds of somewhere between 163 and 167 miles an hour by the time they get to the end of the back straightaway here at vir and get on the brakes for turn 14. yeah where they have to lose about 100 miles an hour to head through that corner at the top of the hill heading down the hill down towards the hog pen at the bottom of the hill great classic racetrack this with uh with not just corner names calling numbers i should say what they call the names as well love it antoine camo in the 34 the white and red number 34 really feeling racy right now sharing that car with colin mullin another impressive young driver colin mullen has been on a charge of late in different types of cars in another series he's won the last two races also has a podium and a second place finish in a mercedes gt4 based machine so colin mullen can get it done in both a gt car and a prototype right now his teammate antoine camau in the 34. taking it to the 17 just in front trying to find a way by he is and antoine como he's a uh a bond trader by by professional richard from canada based these days in chicago looking to the inside there of vari baylor but to not quite close enough to make a move into turn four so he remains there in the seventh position and it was a a tricky qualifying session for antoine como they got there was a red flag during the session caused by that car failure for the uh championship contending car 154 josh sarshay and after that red flag the uh android camo lined up at the pit exit rather than in his pit stall the result of that a drive-through penalty so with the interruption and then having to make a drive-through penalty as well he really didn't get a flying lap in that's why he qualified much farther down the position uh down the order than he'd expected in in the eighth place he's made up one position at the start it's actually brian as he's trying to get past their number 17 car he did get past our bailout on the first lap but android commode he knows he's got a much faster jmf racing conquest racing car than in the seventh position which he is right now this good battle going when we talk about a three-hour event that changes everything jeremy as far as the strategy goes and you kind of wonder with these cars being able to run somewhere between 50 minutes and an hour if it you can get an hour in on both sets you can do it in just two stops the question is especially for a driver like maurice krantz out in front right now is he in fuel save mode already seeing if he can extend this first stit for an hour and then throw in the championship complexion go literally to the other end of the grid the 54 josh charger behind the wheel right now sharing that car with dakota dickerson we said only 10 points separated them coming into the weekend and there's sergei he's only picked up two positions on the start he's got to be smart jeremy he's got three hours and a teammate to hand this car to they've got time to get to the front he needs to steadily move forward but i wonder what kind of fuel strategy they are on because i thought sarge may have charged a little bit harder are they saving fuel early on we'll be right back with more emsa prototype challenge racing on nbcsn welcome back to imsa prototype challenge from vir traction control not super advanced traction control on these cars but you need a little bit of it former iterations didn't happen as you see keith grant down in turn two with a big slide we were talking about the 21 car being on rails earlier keith grant has taken the slot car analogy to to that one that slides around because the rear of that 40 hanging out there and that's a problem if you do that too much jeremy you can begin to wear the rear tires and the car is going to be a handful as grant now up through the climbing s's like we were talking flat out grabbing gears on the way up there but he and his brother have had a great run this year they've showed all kinds of speed you look at their finishes they finished third eighth fourth and thirteenth not a good run at watkins glenn but the worst they've qualified is fifth that was once every other time they've qualified inside the top three and actually on the front row twice they've shown great speed they just haven't had the finishes that they wanted but finishes is where the points pay out and another problem for alan brynjolson there's the problem there you get those slick michelin tires off in the wet grass hard to find traction and he's fortunate because to me i didn't think you could leave the racetrack today without getting to a tire wall and is that there's a problem there onto the front straightaway the 47 was involved but there was a white and blue was that the leader it was maurice krantz the leader a problem trying to get past the 47 car of john brownson i think france was around gross was he yeah one 154 won that last lap and so a spin uh oh no let's see what happens can we see what happened this is looking back from turn one that's going off yeah and about the same time brendolfson went off here's krantz trying to get by brownson coming down through the roller coaster doesn't see him that's a big hit side to side but i also saw looked like maybe part of the front splitter of one of the cars come off the 47 of brownson ends up in the wall at the outside of the corner krantz back underway but you've got to wonder about that car that is a rare mistake and i'll call it a mistake for crayons right now but we don't see hiccups very often for him and i think he just felt like brownson saw him but man with a lead like the one that he had did did you really need to do that there yeah i mean it's a difficult place to pass i mean it's full commitment coming down the hill there toward hog pen uh and you've got to be absolutely sure that the the guy that you're trying to pass knows what you're trying to do there foreign spinning around on the wet grass he's got some traction is he going to get back up the hill against buffalo man it's so treacherous down there on that slick grass he's just going to try and yeah try try and point it downhill yeah downhill turn left turn would be the key there you go and now there's the rear entry but that's that's a scary place to do it but yeah well done like you were saying jeremy you want a little bit of that downhill to help you get going that avoided a full course caution but for maurice krantz his lead now down to four seconds and what kind of duquesne chassis does he have underneath him i saw him weaving the car from side to side down the straightaway trying to get an idea is everything where it needs to be is everything in the right place is the steering wheel straight is the alignment off a little bit what kind of car do i have to work with are my michelins up to pressure did i cut a tire down like i said a move that i'm not sure that if he could do it over again he wouldn't do it differently yeah i completely agree with you there and uh as a result of those cars spinning around down there yeah everybody was slower on that last lap but uh [Music] you're getting right back up to speed again mortgage trans actually extended his lead over dan goldberg by almost two seconds on that on the next slap so to speak after his spin despite the fact he went across the line at significantly slower speed having resumed from going off at the final corner but he's back up to speed again and dan goldberg now is he's got his mirrors pretty much full with keith grant of the uh from uh from tennessee are hot on his tail hot on the tail of the the floridian dan goldberg in the motel six car 40 minutes into the only endurance race prototype challenge will run in 2021 three hours from here at virginia international raceway and drama for the leader maurice krantz caught up with john brownson as he was trying to lap him down through the roller coaster section of the racetrack has turned krantz around lost the huge lead that he had and now trying to extend that back over dan goldberg but that was a problem that crans probably did not need to have and it's easy for us jeremy to sit here and judge because we're not behind the wheel of the cars you're coming down through the s's and you're making split-second decisions and for crayons like i said i'm sure it's one that he would like to have back especially if there's damage done to the car but with a 42.87 the last time by i would say either he is seriously upset with himself and pressing hard to make amends or the 21 duquesne chassis from mueller motorsports america underneath him is quite sound indeed as the 54 josh charges second in the championship trying to move his way forward trying to get around the 17 of tina's right now yeah just getting past prior athena's there uh to one it's a bit of a battle though he should have been a bit more aggressive there i think josh charles really asserts himself dive down the inside so there's no way brian garcias can turn in uh to that corner but he does make the pass so he is up now in sixth position uh but the gap back to uh back to the race leader is still over 40 seconds despite the fact that maurice crans lost about 10 seconds with that spin just a few laps ago so josh starche now is up into seven up into six excuse me uh but he's still got a long long way to go to catch uh catch up in front of the field but as you say trump mueller's trans having made that mistake right back on the same prep sort of pace that he was running before that uh speed that turned 17. it's what it's amazing what kind of fire gets lit underneath you from time to time as a problem for the 74 off jason rabe nosed into the tire wall the car looks to be okay ray just a little lockup i'm gonna assume on the brakes here let's see just slides wide that's up at 11 and 12. we see this quite often the left rear gets dropped as you're trying to let the car track out and get ready for turn 12 and when it drops especially as wet as it is to the outside today that tire hits that slick dirt and grass and around you go you're watching emsa prototype challenge on nbcsn welcome back to insta prototype challenge from vir man this is a good battle stephen mcaleer in the 43 colin mullin in the 34 and they are going at it hammer and tongs there into turn one a little bit of a squeeze by mullen mcaleer having nothing to do with it and they were side by side through a couple of corners two very very talented sports car drivers i will tell you though what i was noticing as far as aerodynamic bits and pieces on the cars may be good news for dakota dickerson jeremy and that is rasmus lin seems to be running a very similar downforce package at least to the naked eye that dakota dickerson is running and i don't see the wilda pulling away all that much down the straightaway in the duquesne chassis so perhaps if dickerson can get there he'll be able to battle with maybe a couple of car wink links the decaying has but he's not just driving away i don't think it had the top speed that the 33 of baylo had uh you might be right that's going to be very very interesting oops i don't know 74 car off the road again uh that's not the first time he's got it says jason rabe again same place he was off before isn't it yeah that's some damage to the rear wing this time he's gonna have to come to pit lane obviously it's deranged the splitter underneath and also the rear wing and hopefully it stays on as he heads down the straightaway here and does not depart because that could create another full course caution if it came to rest in the middle of the racetrack hopefully jason can get that car back to pit lane they can affect repairs and get it done i'm gonna think it happened similarly except there was another car right there i wonder if the other car was involved as well but ended up in almost the exact same spot that he was before this time with the opposite end of the car striking the tire wall and this time with damage which he did not have last time colin mullin all over the gearbox of the yellow number 40 just in front now showing keith grant behind the wheel so perhaps they didn't do the driver change because after the pit stop it was showing david in the car but it doesn't really matter who's in it colin mullen trying to get by it so is stephen mcaleer and just behind them the number three of mike skeen he is down a lap but behind skiing is trent hinman charging forward in the number seven alan brenolson started that car had a couple of problems but hinman man with that full course caution it was perfect for them it has brought him back into the battle it has been he slipped back a bit uh shortly after the restart but he's now made up that ground again and back onto that train of cars and you talk about that battle between colin mullin and stephen mclear uh coincidentally those two those two cars because he's mainly his co-driver uh steve necklace excuse me uh colin mullins co-driver that was battling with stephen mclean in the gt4 series over the last couple of weekends so once again they found themselves together on the racetrack dakota dickerson said a new fastest lap in the race last time around is that that's mullin off the road off at hog pin a long slide he hasn't hit anything skeen trying to get past stephen mcelroske out breaks himself into turn one he is off skeen was trying to get his lap back only his second appearance in a prototype challenge machine this year finished on the podium the first time he was in it and he's trying to keep it moving and again the wet grass here and slick michelin tires is a problem colin mullen i believe may be stuck there just off the front straight away yeah that's it that's unfortunate was a contact between those two uh it was uh the number 33 car was slowing to come into the pit lane i wonder whether that caused uh that uh incident there could well have been uh and uh most unfortunate for mullin the castle kind of pointed the wrong way it's a it's uh let's have a look to see what happens number three for guys leading he slows right down yeah he yeah he blocked the number 40 cars he's heading towards the pit lane colin mullin was stuck on the outside nothing he could have done about that that was a uh that was a uh well unfortunate it's one of these that's going to happen here but um ari bailog there uh you know slowed up in the middle of the corner and caused the constantina behind him yeah i think i think grant actually gets into him look at him come off the corner grant has no idea that baylo is going to slow to come into the pit lane you don't see it from that angle but from the angle looking down the racetrack the other direction watch this well this is this is skiing often one so we'll get back to hog pen and you'll see that one view looks like he just moves to avoid but on the other view i think what you'll see is that there's actually contact this may look so grant hits the back of the 33 then slides left colin mullen gets put off the racetrack by grant that's that contact that put mullen to the outside all precipitated by ari baylo and baylo to me looked like he was out in the fast lane slowing down he in my mind he should have been tucked further right if he was going to commit to the pit lane there's more coming your way just around the corner welcome back to imsa prototype challenge from vir kranz's championship on his shoulders he has been perfect to this point on the restart every lap that he's put in he's defended when he needed to and hasn't risked too much to keep lynn behind but lynn very aggressive and again you look at the championship implications of it jeremy and rasmus lynn dan goldberg in fifth their best finish of the season a second place at sebring a third at watkins glen last time out goldberg and lynn have had speed they would like to take a victory and they don't really have a lot to lose oh and there he goes around [Applause] that's a danny sullivan that was crazy rasmus lind a spin off of turn ten look at this gets through a slide sideways the car hops a little bit starts to go over then comes back around a complete 360 and maintains the position [Music] and just like that the championship complexion changes a problem for the 21 to wilda slow well off the pace so erasmus spun on that lap but now leads the right at the top of the screen on the replay coming off and then a puff of smoke for dewilda as he came off of oak tree tracked out upshifting off of the corner and then he grabs the third gear fourth gear and a puff of blue smoke out of the back you were talking earlier jeremy and you shouldn't have said it you talked about how reliable the power plants were they're going to call you if indeed it's a problem with the engine it's going to be your fault 21 to the pit lane they'll fuel it just as a precaution they can't work on it yet they'll go ahead and fuel it just in case it's an easy fix and once the fuel is in i would expect to see the engine cover come off looked like they were even having see one of the mechanics in the back kind of given the cut sign across the throat don't shut the engine down here comes the engine cover just like that just like that 10 points was maurice krantz's lead coming in but it is not over it's an hour and 34 minutes to go and i'm just looking at the body language by those mechanics the one nearest the wall looked in and just hung his head and began to kind of slowly walk away indeed the 21 is out in the 54 stays the championship lead would go to the 54. i'm not even gonna go there yet with an hour and 33 minutes left to go in this race but even if the 54 were to drop out now and gowilda out you see his head shaking i think it's day done for the 21. [Music] it's why we race jeremy it's why we race you never know what's going to happen think about what just happened we saw rasmus lin a complete 360. the car airborne didn't lose a position carried on and two corners later the race leader came off the corner up shifted two times and a mechanical problem and now a problem for the 47 kangialosi in the fence this is a dramatic race isn't it and uh just astonishing to think that russia's lynch should spin on that last slap and end up in the lead of the race in second place i still can't believe it i could say that it was the oddest thing i've never seen one of these cars hop like that the car slid sideways we talked about it earlier it's 145 mile an hour corner the car slid sideways and then developed so much grip so much downforce watch the right side tires there's the slide they just dig in he starts to go over and you've got to think dakota dickerson was all over the brace going whoa this is going to be ugly and it was a look at the right side tires just dig in that's amazing and the car almost goes over and then around he releases the brakes well brian his lap time was a 144.8 including that spin his previous lap was a 42-0 so he only cost him two seconds on that lap but on his next lap he sets the fastest lap of the race for under caution now he set the fastest lap of the race did rasmus slid a 41.535 for the young swede that was that was the couple of laps i've never seen anything like it i mean truly other than danny sullivan at the indianapolis 500 i've never seen anything like that but even sullivan didn't get airborne and look what all the turbulence has done not to the shot cover that's missing but to the windshield wiper the action continues from virginia international when we come back welcome back to imsa prototype challenge from vir stephen mcaleer through the climbing necessary kind of 43 for robin racing that jacane chassis uh other than that that ducane in third position all the other top six cars are legies uh the grant brothers david is in seventh placing caliber 40 that also is a ducane but it's been a legion race so far at the moment as we see a couple of cars there uh struggling at this stage but uh the silva macaulay is closing on rasmus live each last couple of laps he's reduced that deficit it's now just over a second between the second and third place cars there's mclear at the top of the hill coming down through the roller coaster lind in the red and blue number six onto the front straight away league in the hands of lynn duquesne in the hands of mcaleer and steven said he felt like the legion was the faster car he's sitting in the behind the wheel of the ducane chassis what do you do he's had time to study he's been around him what's his plan with just over 41 minutes to go and that's what the professional race car driver does he doesn't just get there and pounces it's taking him a while to close in and every lap he has a look what do i see him doing where is he turning in is he turning in earlier than i am later than i am where does he break how do i use that to my advantage how do i use it to my disadvantage i was talking to stephen last night and he was saying you know i think they're the faster car it should be fun fuel mileage is going to come down to it he's the one that was telling me 145 miles an hour flat and easy up through the s's i said it would be easy flat for me too probably in second gear not a job here like you guys are and then through oak tree now according to him it looked like the numbers that he gave me and i'm not going to give him out to the general public because i don't want that data out there it looked like he might have a mile an hour or two over some of the legie chassis but again it really depends on what downforce settings they decided to go with in the race and what down four settings the legion chassis has just in front of him you're watching emsa prototype challenge on nbcsn they came into this weekend in second they sit third on the racetrack right now if it were to end this way it will be a big point stay for them but we still have a long way to go brian till and jeremy shaw with you and this has been a great one yeah and the good news for the number 21 team by the way is because with antoine cabot having uh having spun off the road and out of the car the number 34 car for conquest racing and jmf motorsports that means that to hugo de wilder has now moved past for another position so i've been to eleventh place now that'll be worth 200 points for uh for that number 21 team and particularly because he's not in a championship race this championship race this is his first event of the season his co-driver for its crayons those extra 10 points could be very very useful come at the end of the season in a few weeks well think about that jeremy i mean just uh 15 minutes ago maybe 20 minutes ago they were 13th in class and 180 points now they're 10th in class or 11th in class with 200 points so a 20-point swing why do they not quit when the car has a problem and breaks down and it's sitting there in pit lane because you've got an hour and a half to go and if you can get it back on the racetrack and salvage even one more position it's another 10 maybe another 20 points if you can salvage two more positions that's what the 21 team has done and they are out there collecting points and that battle right there garrett grist in the 33 that bright yellow and red go into battle with trent hinman a little rg bargy as calvin fish would say they're into turn 14 a pretty good smack wheel-to-wheel [Music] it was uh coming down the street there again that straight-line speed advantage that the number 33 car has he wasn't very uh he was very forceful to train him and trying to sort of squeeze him down down there on the inside of the corner but chris just well i think that was i don't know it almost looks like trent hinman thought that grist was gonna clear him pretty quickly and aggressively and he was going to drop in behind him because the contact was left front to right rear in a place where you wouldn't really expect that so think about where you sit in these cars on the right side perhaps trent hinman just kind of lost perspective on the 33 there that's typically not something that you would see out of either one of those drivers no harm no foul they have continued on and the battle up front continues on with just over six minutes to go it's been ebb and flow ever since steven mcaleer was able to take the lead on the restart that little bit of lockup for rasmus lind into turn one opened the door mclear through and it has stayed with this half-second lead it was 0.49 seconds .51 seconds 0.50 seconds i'd say that's consistent and it's consistent in mclear's favor it is so that's exactly what he uh needed to do there but uh the fastest guy on the track last time around was the third place car of dakota dickerson he was only a couple of seconds behind he just turned his best lap of the race 141.5 so yeah i think he yeah he was he wouldn't need to save fuel after that uh now that pit stop but uh he he's now running a lot faster hours before we had that latest caution period and he is right there now think about it he stopped a little bit later he has a little fresher tires on the car as well so perhaps that's what we're seeing but dakota dickerson closing in now in that podium position and in fact if you look at the 54 team dakota dickerson josh charge they have not been off of the podium all season long i always say consistency wins championships you find a way you're always there you should always be there if you finish third in a third place car you've won your class for the day and i think that's what they've done all season long they've presented the best car they can they've done the best job they can they've had a win three other podium positions and it looks like if they can hold on for another four and a half minutes they'll have another podium position and they'll have the championship lead when we leave virginia but uh dakota once again on the last lap said his fastest lap of the race at 141.4 but the butt is that the garrett grist behind him turning one minute 40.8 he made up half a second on that last slap with garrett this so he hasn't given up her hopes of a podium fish by any means one minute and 42 second laps basically on average grist is running out of time so is rasmus lind the gap was half a second the last time by the line and i think it may be just slightly greater than that this time as steven mclear one more time leads through hog pin and down the front straight away it should just be a couple of laps left here at virginia international raceway for stephen mcelroy can he bring joe robillard their first victory in the 2021 season joe robillard's first victory in prototype challenge yeah it's gonna be awfully close actually whether it's two laps or a three uh there are about three minutes 42 i think remaining they're turning one minute 40 40 something so it's going to be fairly tight but uh he's still leaving actually this is probably the biggest lead he's had now as he heads uh uh up to through the s's and towards the the climbing s's uh to on his 89th lap but uh lurking there behind him remains rasmus lind and not far behind him also is dakota dickerson closing on both of them is garrett grist as well as the last lap around for gary chris wasn't quite so good he must have made a mistake i think cost him a little bit of ground to go to dickerson but this race is far from over far from over it was eight tenths of a line eight tenths of a second i should say at the line the last time by stephen mcelro over rasmus lin but it is less than that as they come off of oak tree with two and a half minutes yet to go looks like two more laps jeremy i would think i don't think they're going to get to the line and see a white flag this time by to you uh it's going to be times she'll be close yeah but no i think i think it's going to be two more laps but it it it's it is it is close uh one minute for yellow you know so no it won't be white fat this time it will be next time around so next time by it'll be two more laps now for steven mcaleer just another two minutes he's got to hold on and keep rasmus lin behind the michelin tires beginning to lose their edge carr getting lighter on fuel dancing around just a little bit more and while the car and the tire may be going away rasmus lind is not going away jeremy in fact he is closer than he has been in the last 15 minutes to the rear wing of the 43 of stephen mcaleer yeah and to go to dickerson's he's only another 10 12 car lands back as well so if these two uh get into a a heated battle then dakota dickerson could be there ready to pounce and over the last couple laps he just turned his fastest lap again as to go to dickerson in that third position a 141 uh excuse me nurse that was a previous number he's in the 49 certainly he's losing no ground to the the leaders uh and he you know he's in the posing position as well he's managed to maintain that gap over the last couple of laps from garrett grist who's still in fourth place [Music] looks like steven mcallier is able to get that great run off of oak tree every lap leads pulls out another car length maybe two over rasmus lind and that gives him some breathing room hog pin one last time 30 seconds to go white flag this time by round five closing down from vir for prototype challenge stephen mcelroy one lap to go the first victory of the season for robillard racing stephen mcauley or joe robillard it lies less than one lap away but there's no one who would rather throw a wrench into that than rasmus lin the driver in the number six he and dan goldberg have been on speed all weekend long and have been so impressive impressive rasmus lin with that spin up in turn 10 earlier in the race without losing a position and has not gone away they've had a couple of trials a couple of tribulations a couple of scary moments but they've held on what can they do lynn there seems to be a little better through the beginning of the climbing s's had closed in perhaps that run off a turn five gives him a little bit of advantage closes in but if you're gonna do it you need to get it done now heavy breaking into turn 11. into 12. he looks inside he's there they're going to make contact side by side off the corner mclear back to second place what are the officials going to say about that they'll take a look what's mclear going to have to say he's to the inside this is the preferred line into the braking zone at the end of the back straightaway can he hold it side by side wheel to wheel it doesn't get any closer than this stephen mcelroy rasmus lind who's going to make it through the corner mclear is off lin goes through just like that you had to get it done there was time running out only a few corners left to go rasmus lind spin to win at vir down the front straightaway takes the checkered flag the first win of the season for dan goldberg and rasmus lind and it came with the gloves off there's more coming your way just around the corner welcome back everyone we're the fifth round of the imsa prototype challenge series is in the books now let's head down to victory lane and hear from today's winners we know all through the race we were faster in sector two um and i just i just cooled down my tires a little bit because i over pushed it in the beginning of the last three star and i just they told me it's in 11 i need to do it because that we were faster and i just went off the break and just did it so finally oh it's wild we were it was the whole race was pretty wild a roller coaster of emotions we all i mean we were pretty sure he was done for at that moment car was on it going to be on its hood wholesale and then he saves it keeps position pick up first next lap it was just nuts so i mean just we're pumped for everybody for performance tech for motel 6. we've been working all year we've had a lot of really good finishes but not that top step and we finally got it done today couldn't be more pleased well today's race is one that rasmus lin will remember for the rest of his life he won't be able to forget it because of the videos that will exist on just about every major sports platform a spin and win for dan goldberg rasmus lin they come away with the victory it was hard fought for sure for dakota dickerson and josh sarger they did exactly what they needed to do sarge started out was a little bit conservative he wanted to make sure he had a car to head over to dickerson so they could stay in the championship hunt that they certainly did with that second place finish looking back though you talk about a great battle and a great victory for goldberg and lynn go back to sixth place where you find joe robillard stephen mcaleer robillard was so steady in his opening stint handed stephen mcaleer a car he could do battle with and mcaleer that little bitty mistake halfway through the last lap and then the contact from rasmus lin puts him off the racetrack and eventually off and turned 14 trying to get the position back they fought hard but they come away with a sixth place finish but you have to go to page two of the results for the real story and that is in 11th place championship leader coming into the weekend maurice krantz they had that mechanical problem but the team doing what they needed to do they would put the car back out from time to time to just grab another couple of laps to make sure that they were getting as many championship points as they possibly could eventually they come home 11. well how do today's race results translate to championship points let's take a look dakota dickerson josh sarge with that strong second place finish just being steady doing what they needed to do they've now finished on the podium every race so far this season they take over the championship points lead after maurice krantz had those mechanical issues he slips to second but only by a hundred points and that is really nothing he is still very much in this championship and talk about staying in the championship dan goldberg rasmus lin they catapult from fifth coming into vir to third in the championship leaving vir after that stirring victory and they are mathematically capable of winning this championship be sure to catch the next and final race of the season for imsa prototype challenge in early november when round six of the season takes the green at michelin raceway road atlanta as a part of imsa's motul petite le mans it has been a spectacular one it's what we expected the only three hour race of the season this is the kind of racing that virginia international raceway breeds one more race to go to decide the championship in prototype challenge it will come at you from michelin raceway road atlanta in just a few weeks time thanks for watching everyone and don't forget nbc is your home for motorsport and the exclusive network for all of emsa sports car racing this copyrighted telecast may not be reproduced re-transmitted or used in any form without the authorized written consent of the international motorsports association we would like to thank all of our loyal fans for your continued support and we hope you enjoyed today's broadcast

Channel: IMSA Official

Views: 15,886

Keywords: IMSA, International Motor Sports Association, VIR, VIRginia International Raceway, Prototype Challenge

Id: u9thieM2Jvo

Length: 46min 0sec (2760 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 15 2021